York sugar crop lightest for 10 years

By FW reporters

ALTHOUGH the forecast yield for this years national sugar beet crop is in-line with the five-year average, growers near the York factory could have the lightest crop for more than a decade.

		British Sugars director of agriculture Chris Carter said that the average root weight should be about 689g, with a 17.3% sugar content, but there could be a considerable regional variation in yields. “Around York, 60% of the crop was drilled one month late, in May, because of the wet spring,” said Mr Carter.
This years sugar beet campaign got under way – for some – this week

“This means that while in some areas the sugar beet lifting campaign got underway this week, the campaign near the processing factory at York will not begin until Oct 8 in an attempt to allow growers to boost yields.”

Staff at the NFU headquarters expressed concern that the later campaign in York was part of a general shift to push growers into later and later harvesting to boost sugar output.